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Most people who fled wildfire in California allowed to go home

By STEFANIE DAZIO and JOHN ANTCZAK, Associated Press
Published: November 26, 2019, 9:36pm
5 Photos
A helicopter drops water on the Cave Fire burning along Highway 154 in Los Padres National Forest, Calif., above Santa Barbara on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019.
A helicopter drops water on the Cave Fire burning along Highway 154 in Los Padres National Forest, Calif., above Santa Barbara on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) (noah berger/Associated Press) Photo Gallery

GOLETA, Calif. — Most of the thousands of people who fled a raging California wildfire in the mountains north of Santa Barbara were told they could return home Tuesday as an approaching storm offered hope the flames would be doused.

About 4,000 of the nearly 5,500 evacuees were affected when authorities reduced the size of the evacuation zone.

The blaze had blackened more than 6.5 square miles of the rugged Santa Ynez Mountains, but most of that acreage was scorched in its first hours Monday.

The fire was 10 percent contained by Tuesday evening and officials said about 2,400 homes and other buildings remained threatened.

Fire commanders described a fierce battle that saved homes as the blaze consumed brush in an area that hadn’t burned in 29 years.

“We’ve had winds move up slope, down slope, across the slope,” Santa Barbara County fire Battalion Chief Anthony Stornetta said.

An infamous 1990 wildfire in the same area destroyed more than 400 homes.

“It’s just a hard, difficult piece of country to fight fire in and the weather is the most extreme anywhere around,” said Jim Harris, Los Padres National Forest fire chief.

Helicopters dropped water on the fire during the night, and daylight allowed air tankers to drop long strips of fire retardant to box in the flames.

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